North Korea Threatens 'Merciless' Retaliation on U.S. Over Seth Rogen Film

by Antoinette Bueno
8:33 AM PDT, June 26, 2014

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Looks like North Korea doesn't find Seth Rogen and James Franco's new film The Interview -- in which the This Is The End stars play two American television workers recruited to try and kill Kim Jong-un -- very funny.

If the U.S. government doesn't block the movie's release, it will face "stern" and "merciless" retaliation, an unidentified spokesman for North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in state media Wednesday (via CBS News).

The film's release would be considered an "act of war that we will never tolerate," the North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman added. "The enemies have gone beyond the tolerance limit in their despicable moves to dare hurt the dignity of the supreme leadership,"

This is a notable escalation from the country's previous comments to the Daily Telegraph, in which Kim Myong-cho -- whose official title is executive director of the Centre for North Korea-US Peace, but is often described as an "unofficial" spokesperson for the communist nation's leader -- merely slammed the new film.

"There is a special irony in this storyline as it shows the desperation of the US government and American society," he told The Telegraph. "A film about the assassination of a foreign leader mirrors what the US has done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine. And let us not forget who killed [President John F.] Kennedy – Americans."

"In fact, President [Barack] Obama should be careful in case the U.S. military wants to kill him as well."

Though he did admit that the dictator would "probably watch the film."

But Rogen, of course, is taking the latest news in stride.

People don't usually wanna kill me for one of my movies until after they've paid 12 bucks for it. Hiyooooo!!!